Petitions about live planning applications

Petitions can only be submitted if they are about current planning applications that have not yet been decided.

A valid petition will enable you to have speaking rights at a Planning Committee making a decision on the application. A petition can be for or against a particular current planning application.

For your petition to be classed as 'valid', it must have:

full names

addresses

signatures

a minimum 20 people who live in the Borough.

We also recommend your petition clearly states what it is that you are petitioning about, preferably the application number (please use the planning application numbers search to find this if required).

To that end, we encourage you to use the petition templates available on this website. All petitions (either supporting or objecting to a planning application) should be sent to Democratic Services.

Petition templates

We accept any format that can reasonably identify itself as a petition. However, to help you put a paper petition together, we have developed a template that you are welcome to use. It is available in PDF, MS Word and Google Docs format, for either printing or editing:

Speaking rights at Planning Committees

If we receive a valid petition about a planning application that has not yet been decided, the application will be considered by Councillors at a Planning Committee meeting and will mean that:

the petitioner organiser (or their representative) can speak for five minutes at the meeting about the application

the applicant (or their agent) can speak for five minutes at the meeting in relation to their application

Ward Councillors can speak for up to three minutes about the application

What if there is more than one petition on the same application?

If we receive more than one petition on the same application, the Chairman of the Planning Committee may amend the speaking rights - please note that it is not an automatic right for each petition organiser to speak for five minutes if there is more than one petition on an application.

What is the deadline for petitions?

All petitions in relation to planning applications need to be with us 48 hours or more before the meeting. However, the Chairman has discretion to allow petitions after this deadline in exceptional circumstances.

Subsequent meetings

After you have put a petition together and spoken about the application at a Planning Committee meeting, if the application goes on the agenda for a subsequent meeting, you will need to start a whole new petition if you would like to speak again.

Broadcasting of Planning Committee Meetings

Please note that the council may live video broadcast planning committee meetings for increased resident engagement in local democracy. Whilst cameras will be aimed at the Councillors making the decisions, they will also film and record the statements made by other parties, such as petitioners, applicants or agents who speak during the meeting. The cameras should generally not capture people attending to observe proceedings.

Anyone is welcome to watch a meeting live, or archived after the event, on the council's YouTube channel: Hillingdon London.

Contact

Once we have received a valid petition, Democratic Services will contact the petition organiser (or the first person on the petition if the organiser has not been identified) to confirm that we have received the petition. We will then pass a copy of the petition to planning officers for them to decide which Planning Committee meeting the application will be considered at. Democratic Services will not contact the petition organiser again until about a week before this meeting to confirm the date of the meeting and the petition organiser's speaking rights.